Police Officer salary
What a police officer actually earns, from 235 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-09-06.
What the number means
A police officer earns a blended US median near 74,193 dollars, with the typical middle running from 61,915 dollars to 90,856 dollars. The official OEWS median is higher, 76,290 dollars, because job ads skew toward the roles that pay below the occupation-wide average. The official trend has moved up about 21 percent since 2019. Demand is rated moderate, and 1% of postings are fully remote. The nearest adjacent move on our skill graph is compliance officer, at 15 percent coverage; the instrument maps the rest.
Open police officer roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
- Police Officer (Instructor) at United States Army Installation Management CommandFort Polk, Louisiana$62k–$80k2d agoApply
Special Agent (Internal) at U.S. Capitol PoliceWashington, District of Columbia$87k–$148k2d agoApply
Lead Special Agent at Federal Energy Regulatory CommissionWashington, District of Columbia$122k–$158k2d agoApply- Police Officer at U.S. Army Aviation and Missile CommandChambersburg, Pennsylvania$58k–$75k3d agoApply
Police Officer at Scottish Police AuthorityKirkwall, · Remote3d agoApply- (Hot Jobs) POLICE OFFICER at Mobile Civil ServiceMobile County, AL$51k–$64k6d agoApply
Switzerland · official wage bands
median CHF 6'528/month
Swiss postings do not state pay, so these are not posted salaries: they are the federal wage survey (Lohnstrukturerhebung 2024) for the ISCO group 54 Schutzkräfte und Sicherheitsbedienstete: standardized gross monthly, full-time, 13th salary included pro rata. The band covers the whole occupation group, which is coarser than this occupation alone.
Annual ≈ CHF 78'336 at the median. Source: Bundesamt für Statistik, LSE 2024.
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- California$115,400
- Washington$102,640
- Illinois$101,530
- Alaska$100,300
- New York$93,050
- Pennsylvania$86,350
Roles that pay more, that these skills already reach
Median pay from each destination’s own postings, with the readiness a police officer profile already covers.
- 600 open physician roles$268,000 median · +$193,807 · 12% readiness
- 118 open pharmacist roles$153,453 median · +$79,260 · 14% readiness
- 600 open nurse practitioner roles$136,275 median · +$62,082 · 12% readiness
- 43 open aerospace engineer roles$129,497 median · +$55,304 · 14% readiness
Every measured move out of this role, ranked by readiness: alternative careers for a police officer.
Is your offer fair?
Run a specific number through FairElephant, which weighs it against this data, your location, and remote market rates.
Related salaries
- Compliance Officer salary$114,412 median
- Nurse Practitioner salary$136,275 median
- Social Worker salary$94,642 median
Quick answers
How much does a police officer make?
The blended US median is about 74,193 dollars, with a typical range from 61,915 dollars to 90,856 dollars, against an official OEWS median of 76,290 dollars.
Is police officer a good career in 2026?
Demand for the role is rated moderate in our July 2026 corpus, with 1% of postings fully remote. The pay is shown above by seniority and by country.
What can a police officer move into?
The nearest adjacent role on our skill graph is compliance officer, at 15 percent skill coverage. Run the instrument for the full set of reachable moves.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 33-3051. Unemployment is the 2025 BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) CPS (Current Population Survey) annual-average rate for “Police officers.” Live corpus 235 observations, 2026-09-06. Definitions in the glossary.